Lacmac-Napping: UnRayfied
by Prika Of The Moonlight
Summary: Okay, so most people's solution to fixing Rayman: The Animated Series would've been to replace the characters in the show with characters from the Rayman games so that it feels more like a Rayman cartoon. My solution is different. This is the first episode of that cartoon reimagined without Rayman or its universe, hence "UnRayfied". An AU fic, of sorts.


**Lacmac-Napping: UnRayfied**

Cheers invaded the air, the ring overwhelmed with excitement as bright as the spotlight that bathed the hare-like creature in the center of the ring. He, a very large, almost blue-ish grey ram-horned jackalope with trimmed ears, gave a broad grin as he bowed to the audience. He allowed himself to soak in the audience's applause before standing up on his toes and waving at the lot of them. He was in love and they were in awe. He'd succeeded in making them happy once again, so it seemed. The spotlight was then turned off, leaving him in darkness as the usual end-show intercom was heard.

"Please be careful when leaving your seats. Be careful not to step on or trip over one-another. All exits are to your left. We hope you enjoyed The Great Rigatoni's Circus Spectacular! See you again soon!"

The thudding of every audience member's feet was heard at a distance by the lagomorph, but not above the cracking of a whip just behind him. Suddenly, the wonderful world of earned applause was gone and he was left to face reality. He turned toward a human man that was dressed in tamer's clothing that was supposed to look inviting for the sake of the show. This same man held the whip's handle tightly in his hand and had narrowed his eyes at the creature. Before the lagomorph was given a chance to move, he was met with the sting of the leather on the skin under his fur. He gave a whimper as he leapt toward the exit of the tent, this tamer following behind him to continue urging him in that direction. Lacmac might've been twice this man's size, but that'd never help him in a world like this.

Backstage was a set of cages of different sizes. Aside from the tall yet narrow one that obviously belonged to Lacmac, there was a rusted, cube-shaped one of equal height, and a much smaller, bell-shaped one made purely of steel. Inside the former was an anthropomorphic weasel that stood at half Lacmac's height. He sat on a haystack, as though there weren't enough hay between all three cages, at a makeshift desk drawing out blueprints. Specs rested on the bridge of his snout, a bandana was tied around his head, and a dirtied white shirt was only partially covered by overalls. He gritted his teeth at the whimpers that came from just outside his cage and turned his head to make sure Lacmac wasn't as in horrible shape as his cries let on. However, a narrow-eyed glare from the tamer forced him to shrink back and look away as one more crack of the whip sent Lacmac back in his cage.

The steel cage contained a short, chubby fairy who couldn't stop herself from watching the man whistle as he walked away. She wore a yellow sundress to match her polka-dotted pointed hat, its large brim covering her short, red hair and casting a shadow that almost hid her face. She, by impulse, tried to grip onto the tightly-knitted bars of her cage only for them to burn her fingers. She'd be ashamed to admit this wasn't the first time she'd made that mistake. Still, holding her balled up fists at her sides, she made the effort to give Lacmac a concerned glance before calling out to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

She received a pained grunt in response. Lacmac laid himself down on his belly and rested his head in between his outspread arms. The weasel turned his head again to be sure the tamer was gone before standing up and making for the wall of his cage that was so adjacent to Lacmac's.

"Did you miss a step?" he asked.

"Hey, he did fine," exclaimed the fairy. "I should know, I was out there with him!"

"And I should know because I'm the one that plans these things, Bea," the weasel retorted, setting his hands on his hips.

The fairy, Bea, crossed her arms and pouted. "You weren't there, Cookie."

"I know you did well." Cookie reached a hand out to pet Lacmac's head, the jackalope giving a tired smile in response. "If I was the head of all this, I wouldn't get worked up over a misstep."

"If you were in charge of all this," Bea chimed in, as though to remind Cookie that she was still talking to him. "We wouldn't be here at all."

"Don't start, Bea." Cookie's pitch went down as he glared back over at the fairy.

"Start what? Like you don't wish you didn't have to live in a cage?" Bea stated as she returned the glare.

Cookie hushed her as he pointed toward the opened back of the truck, where their captors were just outside. His warning came to no avail. "What about where you came from?" Bea continued. "What about your family?"

Lacmac rose his head and turned to look at Bea with wide eyes, as though she'd touched some forbidden territory. Cookie pulled his hand away from Lacmac's cage, narrowing his eyes before he turned away.

"I don't have a family."

The brief heat in the air dissipated when the whole room became quiet. Lacmac stood up, knitted his brows at Bea, and pointed to the now dejected Cookie, who was sitting with his back to them both. Bea rolled her eyes and groaned, letting her arms fall to her sides.

"Well, I do," she said. "And I wanna see them again."

There came no answer from Cookie. Lacmac shook his head before turning toward where Cookie sat. He leaned forward, rested his head on the bars of his cage, and reached a hand out to nudge Cookie.

"I'm fine, Lacmac," Cookie uttered, although he was shaking.

Lacmac gave a snort as he furrowed his brows and lowered his head in attempted to be even closer to Cookie. This was his way of saying "you're lying."

Cookie sighed and looked up, his eyes half-lidded. He reached a hand up for Lacmac to take, which he did. Lacmac sat down and scooted himself closer to the edge of his cage.

"It's not that I don't hate this," Cookie began. "You think I like being cooped up in here and forced to come up with acts for you two to perform?"

"Well, no, but…" Bea looked away in thought before her brows rose and she glanced in Cookie's direction again. "You have nowhere else to go, do you? Is that why-"

"Drop it."

"I know! You can come live with me and the other fairies! And Lacmac, too!"

"I said drop it," Cookie hissed again. "You're going to get us all in bigger trouble than we're already in. _That's_ why."

"You could at least tell me a little bit about what happened to you," Bea continued. "Would it make you feel better if I told you what happened to me?"

An irritated groan escaped Cookie as he rolled his eyes. "It'd make me feel better if you stopped being so nosy."

"Oh, come on!"

Lacmac looked toward Bea with half-lidded eyes and a soft grunt. Just drop it, he thought. Cookie doesn't want to talk about it.

Lacmac knew little about what Cookie'd been through before he wound up here, if only because they were such good friends. Cookie was living in the street, so Lacmac knew, but the weasel never shared much else. How did he get on the street? That, so Lacmac's accepted, was none of anyone's business. Bea never stopped going on about how much she missed her family back at the glade she came from. From that, Lacmac could conclude that she was an unlucky fairy captured solely due to human's interest in the strange. That was something they all had in common: they were strange and interesting to humans. Lacmac never thought that'd feel so demeaning. He loved to make people happy, that's why he always wanted to perform for crowds.

That was ruined for him.

Bea pouted. "Okay, fine. But I haven't heard you reject living with me in the glade yet."

"As nice as that sounds, it's not going to happen," replied Cookie. "You're just not being realistic."

"Hmph. Quitter."

After hours of silence, the truck suddenly stopped. A rush of anxiety warmed Cookie's blood as he picked himself up, gave one last panicked glare toward Bea before sitting himself back down at his makeshift desk and starting to scribble away at one of his uneven papers. Lacmac's fur stood up on end as he pressed himself against the very back of his cage. The back of the truck opened up again, two men standing just outside. One was the tamer, whip in hand. The other was a taller, hulking figure in a purple suit. Jet black was his slick-backed hair, as well as the matching, curled mustache, and pale were his facial features.

The hulking figure approached first, only briefly glancing over Bea before his eyes rested on Lacmac cowering in his cage. He knelt down in front of the cage and reached a hand in between the bars, setting down a potato. Lacmac didn't want to move, but his persistently growling stomach told him that he should move forward. He inched to the front of the cage before he was close enough to pick up the potato. When he was, however, he was also close enough for the man to start stroking his face, his fingers brushing Lacmac's fur on his cheek before rubbing his chin. Lacmac gave a whimper as he quickly pulled away, to which the man clearly showed his distaste.

"After all that I do for you, Lacmac," he began. "You still don't respect me."

"Maybe we all would if you didn't kidnap and cage us, Rigatoni!"

Rigatoni snapped his gaze back toward Bea, narrowing his eyes. He picked up a steel crowbar that he kept on the truck's floor and inched toward Bea's cage with it. As the crowbar started to reach within the cage, Bea backed away from it. Rigatoni laughed.

"What's the mattah?" he cackled. "You fairies weak ta steel or somethin'?"

He pulled the crowbar away and dropped it on the ground again, turning toward the tamer as he struggled to cease his laughter.

"Get Lacmac out and start brushin' up for our next show," he demanded. "We're setting up shop heah."

The tamer staggered inside and picked up a ring of keys from his belt, inserting one into the door to Lacmac's cage. Lacmac struggled to even pull the skin off his potato before the tamer started urging him out. Lacmac tried to take at least one bite before he was whipped, causing him to drop the potato. With a whimper, he dragged himself out and followed the tamer out of the truck.

Rigatoni let himself right into Cookie's cage, standing over the weasel's shoulder as he drew. It looked like the blueprints to some kind of machine. He had Cookie make things like lights and smoke machines for the performance before, but this looked nothing like those things. It displayed fan blades and described them propelling to fly. Needless to say, it wasn't useful to him. Rigatoni leaned over and abruptly picked up the pile of papers on the makeshift desk, causing Cookie to nearly jump. Rigatoni dropped the blueprint on the front of the pile on the ground, then another, and another. Cookie frantically tried to pick them all back up at once, avoiding Rigatoni's gaze.

"Whadda'ya have for me, Cookie?" came his near-booming voice. "What's with all these… machines?"

"Those are just… inventions I had in mind," Cookie replied.

"Inventions? For the show?"

"N-no, just…"

When Cookie sat up, Rigatoni was staring right through him with his eyes opened only to slits. Cookie felt his blood turn to ice while he tried to pick one paper from under his desk.

"I started to come up with something new for Bea," he began as he showed Rigatoni the written choreography. "But it's not finished yet. I only started it yesterday."

"Then finish it." Rigatoni stated coolly before turning away. He walked out of the cage and slammed the door behind him before locking it. Cookie found all of the rest of the papers Rigatoni had taken carelessly dropped on his cage's ground.

There came a loud crash and the truck suddenly shook for a moment, knocking Cookie to his side before he could pick his papers up. Everyone inside the truck gasped before Rigatoni stormed outside. What he found was Lacmac cowering by what now was a large dent in the side of the metal truck. The tamer stood before his shaking body, pulling his arm back to, once again, whip him. Lacmac howled with fright as he heard Rigatoni's footsteps getting closer.

"Just what's goin' on heah?!" Rigatoni roared.

The tamer paused and pointed to Lacmac. "That thing started freakin' out on me again. Before I could stop him, he rammed right into the truck. I-I'm sorry, sir!"

"Ugh," Rigatoni turned away and rolled his eyes. "This'll be anotha expense to pay, right after the enormous revenue I just earned… Great."

"He won't comply with me, sir," the tamer added. "I can't get him to do anything right now. You know what that means."

Rigatoni began to climb back into the truck, headed back toward Cookie's cage. "Come on, Cookie! We need you. Lacmac's flippin' out."

While Cookie was pulled out of his cage and urged to go to Lacmac, Bea leaned forward to listen carefully. Did Lacmac really damage the truck? She'd quickly discover that the answer was yes; she could see where the dent was made from the inside. Bea also noted Rigatoni stopping to look at it.

"Cookie," she whispered as Cookie started to make for the truck's open back. Cookie looked back and put a finger to his muzzle. Rigatoni was still close enough to hear them. Bea mouthed "Lacmac" before pointing to one of the bars of her cage. Cookie shook his head.

"Don't even think about it," he whispered before he walked out. Rigatoni followed him, but not before giving Bea a dirty look. She scowled right back at him just after he looked away.

Outside, Cookie knelt beside Lacmac, who rested his head in the weasel's lap as soon as he realized he was there. Lacmac gave muffled cries into Cookie's stomach as though his large, lanky form had been reduced to that of a small child. However, with two sets of eyes gazing down at them both, Cookie found himself having to urge Lacmac back up.

"Come on, Lacmac," Cookie whispered as he gestured for the large lagomorph to stand up. "Let's practice together. I'll help you."

Bea still listened in on the conversation that was happening outside. It was no more than the usual "Cookie, you'll set up the tent first thing after this", "Lacmac, don't look so miserable", and "fastah, for god's sake, fastah!" without Cookie once standing up for either himself or Lacmac. The coward. Though perhaps it was unreasonable to think that; she once witnessed Cookie snap at Rigatoni for rushing him when he was asked to fix the… stereo, was it? All she knew was that he returned to his cage holding his shoulder and sobbing.

After an hour of "rehearsal", Lacmac was returned to his cage while Cookie was urged to set up the tents. A couple of words of pseudo-kindness from Rigatoni and the lagomorph was left in the dark with Bea. He sat himself down in the hay with a heavy sigh with his back facing the door of the cage, staring into the darkness with his half-lidded eyes.

"You could've run away right then, you know," Bea commented. "If you're that strong, I bet you could've knocked them out and made a break for it."

Lacmac snapped his head toward the fairy and gave a loud, irritated growl. He picked himself up and stomped toward the edge of his cage closest to Bea's, leaning his head against the bars. As Bea looked up at him, she could see how red and swollen his eyes were, the wetness of tears lining just above the bags. He was getting sick and tired, not only of this lifestyle, but of the false hope Bea continuously tried to stir. He gave a snort and flared his nostrils, as if telling Bea to please stop.

Bea frowned. "You really don't think there's any hope, do you?" she asked, looking toward the ground in defeat. "…But what would be wrong if you did get out right then and there? Do you just not want to leave Cookie and me?"

Lacmac nodded, shutting his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked toward Bea with lifted brows. With his head, he nodded toward her cage and gave a whimper.

"Yes, these bars are especially made to keep a fairy like me in," Bea explained. "You've noticed, huh?"

Lacmac answered with a small grumble and a nod. He couldn't be unsympathetic toward Bea; neither him nor Cookie had cage bars that burned them when they touched them. Lacmac couldn't imagine how much worse life here would be if he did.

"I know how you can help," Bea stated, perking up as a smile returned to her. "Remember how you dented the truck a while ago?"

Lacmac's eyes went wide as he crouched down and backed away, shaking his head. That dent in the truck was an accident! What would they do to him if he bent the bars of his cage on purpose?

"Come on! You won't get in trouble if we get out, and this way we could all- "

Lacmac whined in protest, slamming his front paws on the bars of his cage as he continued to shake his head. With a gasp, he pulled his hands away from the bars. He couldn't risk it. Even his paws might cause damage and cost him what little dignity he had left.

"You wouldn't rather be free?" Bea asked.

Lacmac froze up at Bea's words, his still wide eyes staring into space before he looked at her. He was quiet.

"Of course you'd rather be free," Bea continued. "You know there'd be no more cages and no more Rigatoni out there."

Lacmac nodded.

"And you'd be able to make people smile on your own accord, in your own way."

Lacmac nodded again, looking up in thought. There was nothing on Earth he wanted more than that.

"So, don't you wanna try it?"

Lacmac's frown grew heavier as he turned away from Bea.

"But…" Bea stopped herself from saying any more. Perhaps she really should know when to quit.

Lacmac was roused from a troubled sleep when he heard the doors to the back of the truck open again. What little of his ears were left perked up as he picked himself up and looked over his shoulder, hoping it was Cookie's return that woke him. Unfortunately, it was Rigatoni standing at the open back. Bea was sleeping and Cookie hadn't yet returned. Lacmac was alone with the man.

Rigatoni approached with his hands folded behind his back, a grin on his pale face. Like before, he knelt himself down before Lacmac's cage and unfolded his hands. One of them held an entire loaf of bread. He held this loaf in front of himself and waved it slightly, looking up at Lacmac with what he tried to disguise as a friendly, inviting smile. Lacmac only bought it for a second, if only for that bread. Lacmac dragged himself forward, as close to the edge of the cage as he could stand. Rigatoni once again reached within the cage and began stroking Lacmac's fur. Lacmac froze up, but withstood it for his stomach's sake.

"My star," Rigatoni whispered as he fed the bread loaf through the bars of the cage.

Lacmac grabbed the loaf as quickly as possible and backed away from Rigatoni's reach, leaning against the very back of the cage before ripping the loaf apart. He didn't need to look at the man to know what disgusted facial expression he wore.

"So much fuh thanks," Rigatoni spat, his all-too familiar façade fading. "After all I did fuh you! I made you a star, and you crawl away from me. Why don't you show me a little affection now an' then, huh? You're like a son to me."

A brief, low growl from Lacmac told Rigatoni that he didn't believe him.

Rigatoni narrowed his eyes and returned the growl, which Lacmac was used to. What he wasn't used to was Rigatoni gripping onto the bars of the cage and starting to shake it. His terror was roused, his gaze forced up toward the man as his heart thudded.

"Even if you don't like that I made you what you ah," Rigatoni hissed. "You're still mine."

 _Mine._

In the midst of all the intense dread and incomprehensible feeling going on in Lacmac's head, there was one thing he could understand: he didn't want that.

 _"I know how you can help."_

It was like he didn't even control his body. Two of the bars were bent. His horns hit Rigatoni in the head before he came crashing onto the ground. Lacmac stood over the man's unconscious body. He was out.

Bea awoke to see three of the steel bars from her cage missing, Lacmac standing in front of it as his head darted to and fro from the open back of the truck. Her eyes lit up before she crawled out through the newly created opening in the cage. Once she stumbled out, she flitted her long wings and started to hover.

"Come on, Lacmac!"

The two of them dashed out of the truck, toward the metal poles where hung a partially standing tent. Cookie was there, sweating as he struggled to keep his eyes open. With no sign of the tamer within line of either of their sight, Lacmac scooped Cookie up in his arms and continued running. Cookie's eyes shot open, realizing maybe a second or two late that he was no longer on the ground, tying some rope to some pole.

"B-Bea? Lacmac? What… What are you two doing?!"

Bea lowered herself to Cookie's line of vision. "What does it look like?"

"Are you both out of your minds?! Do you know what might happen if they catch us?"

"They won't."

The trio of creatures disappeared into the dark seconds too late for either the tamer to turn his head or Rigatoni to wake up.

The sun had risen just a few hours ago and Bea and Lacmac had hidden themselves well in the bushes in a forested area right outside a local town to catch up on some rest. There came a honk not even a few feet from them, waking them both up. Startled, Lacmac froze where he laid and stared into space with wide eyes. Bea lifted her head just enough to see that it was Cookie, who sat at the wheel of a shabby-looking, roofless car. She flew out of hiding and motioned for Lacmac to follow as she approached Cookie. Lacmac hesitated at first, but once he noticed the weasel, he practically leapt out of the bush, beaming. The fresh, cool morning air comforted him, like a luxury he'd been denied for so long.

"What's this?" Bea asked, cocking a brow at the rusted machine.

"It's a faster way across the country and out of the mess we made for ourselves," Cookie explained. "I took a walk into a nearby vehicle repair shop and fixed this baby up for us. It was busted before I found it."

"Wait, so you stole it?"

"Yes. Now get in, both of you, before I get arrested."

Without further question, both Bea and Lacmac placed themselves inside the car. Cookie took only a second after the doors closed to step on the gas and guide the car onto the open road. They furthered themselves from the town it seemed Cookie'd stolen the car from and began their way toward what to them might as well have been nowhere. Hopefully, if they were to stay free, it was as void of civilization as it looked. Lacmac, however, was far too overjoyed and excited to even worry.

"Bea," Cookie suddenly stated. "I'll need a navigator. Tell me where to go."

"Huh? Why?" Bea asked. "Where do you want me to take you?"

"Home."

Home? Bea's home? Lacmac became even more excited at the thought of that. He had to admit, he was curious about the other fairies Bea always talked about. They sounded so nice!

He just hoped she knew how to get there from here.


End file.
